


That's Where You Breathe

by Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-06-05 01:36:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6684070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha was leery of accepting help from Loki, but circumstances were dire. Who knew he could actually mean it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	That's Where You Breathe

**Author's Note:**

> Post-Winter Soldier, and could possibly take place prior to AOU if you insist that's canon. This was actually going to be G rated initially, but Jessy thought a little sexytimes wouldn't be terrible to add. Who am I to say no? ;)

SHIELD had fallen, and there was no putting that genie back in the bottle. There was no way to erase the knowledge that she had helped Hydra gain a foothold in the world, that her past had come back to haunt her without her even realizing it. Part of her wished she could go with Steve and Sam on their hunt for Bucky, but she knew where that would end. It wasn't going to be pretty, and she was already scraped raw by the multiple layers of betrayal and mistrust that had been around her. It would be too difficult for her to support Steve the way he would need her to, and she wouldn't be able to keep herself aloof and stoic.

Creating new covers was easy, almost like second nature at this point. She had a few safe houses scattered across the world, but she didn't want to draw attention to them in case some agency or freelance assassin had been able to connect the dots from the covers that had been made public. The one in Rio was probably completely busted, given that it had been leased to one of the now-public identities.

She wound up in the midst of a festival in Austria, lost amidst the crowds of tourists enjoying the festivities and going through the crumbling castles. Natasha couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched and followed, through she didn't see any overt signs of it.

Still, she had survived this long by trusting her instincts, so she wasn't going to ignore them.

Zigzagging through the streets, she made sure to keep out of the line of sight of any easy sniper nests. Natasha was traipsing about as a leggy blonde visiting from Germany, falling into the persona like a pair of comfy jeans that had been worn in to mold to her shape.

Just when she was beginning to think her paranoia was unjustified, she caught sight of a man scanning the crowd with a frown on his face. She could make out the outline of a holstered gun beneath his jacket.

Natasha quietly backed up and turned down an alley out of the way of the crowds. She had to find a place to lay low for a bit, then take one of the trains out of Austria. They didn't know what she would look like or where she would go, not when she was _trying_ to stay out of sight and wasn't contacting anyone she knew wasn't compromised by Hydra. There were too many loyal agents flocking to SHIELD bases and getting killed in the process. She hoped Clint got her warning and got out of his undercover op in time.

There were places she would have to hide, off the beaten path. She didn't have any safe houses close by, but she could always find something. She'd hidden on the streets before, she could do it again. It didn't always take much, it just took a little creative thinking.

As she walked, she felt something odd in the air around her. That felt almost familiar, but she couldn't place the feeling or why it was familiar.

The air seemed to shimmer off to the side of her, and she paused. That definitely looked familiar, and this time she could place it. Magic.

She'd never worked with Dr. Stephen Strange before, but she had observed some of the results of his work for SHIELD. Was he trying to save the agents that didn't make it to safe houses?

Well, she wasn't about to get stuck out in the open with Hydra agents after her. As the magical portal fully formed, she jumped straight through it.

And came face to face with Loki.

Natasha froze and simply stared at him. "Loki."

He merely nodded, and didn't seem to have any particular menacing air around him despite their last meeting in New York. Dressed in ordinary looking jeans and a dark green sweater, black boots and his hair swept back, Loki looked like any other ordinary mortal man.

Then he smiled widely at her. "You're welcome."

"What's going on?"

"I would have thought that was obvious. Saving your worthless life."

"Why?"

His smile didn't shift at all. "Because then someone would owe me a rather significant favor."

That was excuse she could buy, at least.

"So now what?"

"It all depends on you."

"Why?"

"The favor only indicated that I save you from Hydra agents that work to kill you. There was nothing mentioned about afterward."

"What is it that _you_ want?"

"Better question," Loki said, an amused grin on his face.

"Well?"

"But where's the fun in just giving it all away?"

Natasha crossed her arms in front of her and breathed out in annoyance. If this was just a way for him to relieve his boredom... Well, she could believe that, too, but she didn't know why he would choose her for that. It could be an elaborate setup to get even for tricking him on the helicarrier, but she didn't get that vibe from him at all. He seemed to be intrigued with her at the moment, and she supposed that as long as it stayed that way, she would be fine.

"How about we start with where we are?"

Loki grinned at her. "Where do you want to be?"

She frowned at him, wondering what he meant by that, and then looked around her. She was in a perfectly white room, no distinguishing features in it at all. There were no windows, no doors, just eight white walls, a white floor and a white ceiling. The light was perfectly even despite there being no overhead lights or lamps in the room. It simply was, and the ambient light was comfortable and not too bright. The temperature was even set comfortably for her dress, as if this was an elaborate and magical holding room.

"Is this your prison?"

"Oh, no," Loki replied, amused for a moment. Then his expression hardened. "Asgardian prisons are rooms beneath the palace, the walls nothing more than energy fields. There are no private areas, nothing to maintain dignity by any means."

"So where is _here?"_

"You can't tell, little spider?"

Natasha narrowed her eyes at him. "You don't get to call me that."

"Whyever not?" he asked, lips quirking. "The Black Widow moniker was so well earned long before I came to your planet, and it's a type of spider."

They were more than arm's length apart, carefully separate. The only way to wound each other was with words, but Natasha didn't get the sense that it was Loki's aim. So what was his game?

"No, I can't tell where we are," she said, answering his earlier question.

"Why don't we go out and see?" Loki smiled magnanimously, and then nodded at one of the walls. It didn't look any different from the other seven walls. It slid downward, revealing a hallway as white and nondescript as the room itself. The hallway extended down a ways, ending in a door covered with elaborate runes and markings that might not have been runes.

"Why not?" she asked, then took his proffered arm.

The ornate door opened out onto a grassy field in an area full of sunshine. There were flowering trees and a number of wildflowers in the grass. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue, without any clouds in the sky. Natasha stopped at the threshold, nearly gaping at the sight. Loki smirked, but tugged through into the field.

"I used to come here," Loki said after a moment. He patted her hand gently. "It's a welcome change from the dreary day to day nonsense, isn't it?"

"Still doesn't explain where here is."

"Do you really need to have a name for this location?"

"Yes."

"How very banal," Loki sighed, patting her hand again. "But then, in your line of work, it always pays to have information, no matter what it is. Isn't that so?"

"If you say so," Natasha replied with a shrug.

"Come now," he said in a wheedling tone. "Won't you play along?"

"Why?" she asked, frowning at him. "What do you really want from me?"

He let go of her, and she almost missed the warmth on her arm. "I told you. Saving you will gain me a favor. I find myself collecting quite a few of them."

"But that doesn't explain bringing me here. It doesn't explain all this," she said, spreading her arms to encompass the field. "Why _this?_ Saving me from Hydra goons could just mean transporting me somewhere else. It doesn't mean bringing me here. This place has meaning for you. _That's_ what I want to know. Why bring me _here?"_

"Sometimes," he said quietly, "it's good to have a pause. A space for a breath. Time to rest before beginning to plot again." He shoved his hands into the jeans pockets, looking far more innocent than he had any right to. "Aren't you tired? So much plotting, so much running. You've never stopped since your precious agency fell. So many lies to protect other liars. It's exhausting, isn't it? I think I would be, and I'm as close to immortal as your kind can imagine."

"Immortality doesn't mean impervious to injury. It doesn't mean you don't tire."

He smirked and nodded. "I suppose."

"But yes," she murmured. "It would be nice to rest."

"Then we may rest here. And breathe. Soon enough, it will be time to go on the run again, and then we will once again be at odds."

Natasha cocked her head to the side. "You like it that way. Everyone at a distance. Everyone a challenge to you. That's how you feel alive."

Loki's smile was sharp. "Recognize a familiar state to yourself, do you?"

"I do."

It was clear by his frozen expression that he hadn't expected her to agree with him. He turned away, hands still in his pockets, and looked toward the flowering trees.

"How long do you want to stay?" she asked him.

"Until I remember how to breathe again." He turned toward her, expression unreadable. "Time is frozen here. The others will never know that you were even gone."

She closed the gap between them, a sincere smile on her lips. "Thank you."

The smile he gave her in return was somewhat strained, but it was definitely a genuine one as well. "You're welcome, Natasha."

This time, she held her arm out to him in a gallant gesture, waiting until he took it with his long, slim fingers. "Let's go explore this place and figure out how to breathe together."

He fell into step beside her, a comfortable silence in the air. She could figure out what she really wanted in this time outside of time. Maybe he would use the time for the same reason. It didn't mean that their objectives lined up, but at least for now, what they needed was one and the same. She could accept that much.

***

Time held no meaning, and the meadow seemed to go on for infinity. Natasha hadn't been sure when she lost the tension in her body, but the endless walk through the meadow was largely responsible for it. She was quiet, focusing on her walk and letting her thoughts wander wherever they wanted to. Loki kept pace beside her, not terribly difficult for him to do, and he hummed some kind of lilting tune that soothing and repetitive.

"What song is that?" she asked after a time. She should have been sweaty, with the sun and the walk and the absence of a breeze, but her skin remained cool and dry.

"A lullaby," Loki sighed.

Thor had alluded to some kind of mourning, to grieving and Loki sacrificing all in order to find honor. She had thought it meant he had died, but apparently not.

"Are there words?"

"None you would know."

"I'd still like to hear them. I don't have to understand a language in order to appreciate the melody or the beauty of the sounds."

"That is... wonderfully poetic," he said in surprise.

She smiled and inclined her head at him slightly. "There is a lot that we don't know about each other, Loki."

"Fair enough," he agreed, nodding. "All I know of you is colored by what others think."

Clint. SHIELD agents. The files she had released to the internet.

"And what do you think?"

"I think that your facility with lies and manipulation was born of necessity," he said after a long moment. "That there cannot be something whole when it was all built on emptiness." His voice sounded hollow. "That we are far too similar for comfort."

"Is that why you chose to bring me here?"

"Perhaps," he sighed.

Natasha sighed and grasped his arm so that he would stop along with her. "You're tired of it all, aren't you? That's why you're not in any rush to go back."

"What do you know of Norse myth?"

"Not a lot. I looked into a few of the eddas after meeting you and Thor in the Battle of New York, but I wouldn't consider myself an expert."

He inclined his head rather than say something like _Of course not,_ which would be insulting. "What do you know of Ragnarok?"

"It's the end of the world."

His smile was bitter and edged, an expression she had seen far too often in the mirror. "Quite. But not just one world, Natasha," he sighed. "All of them. All those realms connected to Yggdrasil. All of those would be destroyed."

"You were only interested in rule, not destruction," Natasha murmured. At his unhappy nod, she tilted her head to the side and contemplated him. "You would have hated rule."

Loki looked at her in amusement. "You think so?"

"You haven't the temperament for it. Rule involves delegation, paying attention to details, trusting that others will follow your lead."

He turned and looked toward the flowering trees, which seemed to be just as far away as when they had started walking. "I suppose you have a point."

"Is that what's next for you? A prophecy about the end of the world?"

"They always come true," Loki replied heavily. "Even if you run from destiny, it cannot ever be escaped. It haunts you until the end of eternity."

"The thing about prophecies, though," Natasha began carefully, drawing his attention back to her, "is that the wording is usually very vague. And destruction can mean a lot of things. It doesn't always mean that everything is ruined and nothing can be reclaimed. Sometimes it just means a change. Drastic change." She let out a soft huff of breath. "Like I'm sure something good will be built out of the ashes of SHIELD."

Loki caught her hands in his, his expression surprisingly tender as he looked at her. "Perhaps our similarities will help us."

"Maybe if you let it."

He laughed, sounding almost delighted, and then took a half step back so that he could swing her about in a circle. She could hear some kind of music beginning to play around them, something low and melodic, perhaps Asgardian in origin. It was more like a waltz, something formal yet could still be turned into something more dramatic or sensual.

Figuring she had nothing to lose, she leaned in close and chose to turn it sensual.

Though it seemed to startle him, Loki continued the dance as if he had expected it that way all along. "You aren't what I expected you to be, Natasha," he murmured.

"What did you expect?"

"A hard shell with an empty center. So many believe it of you."

"And what do you think now?"

"Your center isn't empty. You're not hollow. The empty space is nothing but another layer that you hide behind. Few think to look beyond that."

"Would you?"

"Now, I would."

She stopped gliding across the grass and stood on tip toes. He leaned down to meet her, and the kiss was softer than she had thought it would be, more tentative and hesitant. She doubted that Loki was a virgin given his lifespan; maybe he worried about hurting her, that she was fragile because of her mortality. It was a surprising but thoughtful consideration, a side of him that he likely rarely showed anyone.

Natasha parted her lips and extended her tongue, touching his lips and then sliding between them as he opened his mouth. She reached up to grasp the nape of his neck, keeping him in place, and her other hand traced the planes of his chest. "How much concentration do you need to maintain this place?" she asked.

"None. The spells used to create it are anchored into Yggdrasil itself, a knothole in one of its great branches. I only need to concentrate to find this place or teleport out of it."

"And you need an anchor," she murmured, dragging her lips across his cheek, down to the curve of his jaw. "So that no matter what happens in the future, you remember who you are. That you find yourself, even in the midst of chaos, like this knothole dimension."

"You propose to be such an anchor?" he asked coyly.

Her laughter wasn't meant to be charming or cocky, but almost a defeated sound. "I doubt any single person could do that. But you brought me here for a change of pace. Because we're too much alike, and I found a peace that you can't, not by yourself."

Loki caught her jaw in his hand. "You think you're better than me?"

"No," she replied honestly, turning her head to press her lips to his palm. "Just farther along this path than you are. You brought me here to breathe, and I can show you how."

"With your body?"

"By having you simply feel for a time. To see who you are when there isn't anyone else you have to be. Until you know that, you won't be able to figure out how to move forward."

"Do you think it's so simple?"

Now she laughed as if it was a funny joke. "Of course it isn't. It's harder than it sounds. There are always a thousand selves to get in the way. You have to dig down deep to find the very bottom and work your way up from there, and it _hurts."_

"I appreciate the honesty," he murmured, releasing her face to run his palm down the side of her throat to the curve of her shoulder.

Natasha pulled at his shirt until she could touch the bare skin of his abdomen. The muscles contracted at her touch, his breath hissed in. Not knowing much about his cultural mores, she quirked her lips. "Ticklish? Or not used to commoners getting so close?"

"Waiting to see what will happen next."

"How far are you willing to go?" she asked in challenge.

"How far are _you?"_ he returned, lips curling into a smile.

"As far as necessary."

"Then so shall I."

Stripping down to the bare essentials didn't necessarily mean getting naked, though it could definitely help. Natasha was already in a raw, vulnerable place, so she did understand the position that Loki found himself in. She ghosted her fingers over his skin, leaning in to again press her lips to his jaw. Loki didn't seem to know what to do with his hands, where he should touch her, if he even should.

So she turned undressing him into a sensual tease, caressing his skin as she exposed it bit by bit, light touches and the sensation of her nails trailing lines and wavy curls. He watched her closely, lips parted; Natasha could tell that he was still thinking, still judging, trying to plan for the possibility that she was playing him somehow. She was so tired of that by now, of living inside a net of lies that did nothing for her in the end. He wouldn't know that, wouldn't understand that, might not even believe that she was aching for _something_ to be real. This could be, just for a moment, that brief pause before beginning again.

He was built solidly, lines of muscle outlined as he stood before her proudly. Curling her lips into a challenging smile, Natasha began to shift and sway in time to the music that had played earlier, turning the dance into a striptease. Loki watched her avidly, not touching, losing some of the calculation in his gaze.

Clothes scattered around them, Natasha approached slowly and rubbed her body against his, grinning when he tensed. "They don't do that on Asgard?"

"The noblewomen don't," he admitted.

"No nobility here," she murmured, slithering around his body, her hands brushing across his chest and then sliding down to his groin. "Just a man and a woman in an empty meadow, under a beautiful sky, with no one around for miles to see." She pressed her lips to his back, then touched the tip of her tongue to the skin, dragging it across in a vague pattern. "So why don't we see what a man and a woman can get up to on a day like this?"

Loki laughed, turning around and lifting her up to kiss her mouth again. She wrapped her arms and legs around him for balance, and he shifted his arms around her to steady her. His strength helped with that task, and the reminder of it sent a shiver down her spine. "Cold?" he asked, mouth pressed against hers.

"No," she returned, smiling. "I like my men strong."

"In that case, you'll be utterly delighted."

"Oh, I do hope so," she purred.

He took one hand from her back and did some kind of complicated gesture behind her. A section of the grass solidified and became a bed covered in silks and furs, sumptuous pillows tossed about on it. Loki lowered her gently onto it as she smiled, and she welcomed his touch.

At the feel of his cock prodding her entrance, though, she gently pushed on his shoulders and quirked a brow at him. "Really? So soon?" He sputtered, and she breathed out a sigh before pushing him onto his back and straddling his waist. "What about anticipation?" she purred, rubbing her slit across his cock. She arched her back and gave him a sultry smile. "Prolonging the action before we get down to business? Reveling in the sensation of it."

Reaching up to tug on her hair, Loki's lip curled. "I certainly would have reveled in it."

She ran her nails down his chest and rotated his hips, grinding down on his cock without letting it enter her. "But it's so much more fun this way."

The look on his face made her think that perhaps Asgardians didn't talk about sex or pleasure much, likely only duty and creating alliances through marriage and families. She almost wanted to say "Poor thing," but refrained; he wouldn't think there was anything wrong with that, and he wouldn't be wrong.

So instead, she simply ran her hands over him, giving him a dirty look whenever he tried to reposition her so he could simply fuck. Her hair brushed over his skin when she bent down to run her lips over his belly, low down, studiously avoiding his erect cock. She only blew on it, making him groan a little, and stroked everywhere else on his body except there. It was sensuous and slow, teasing him, making him shiver and groan. Natasha was sure he wasn't scheming for more, not when he so clearly was following her unspoken lead to simply lie there and take all that she was giving him.

That was the best part about this, really.

Loki practically howled when she finally took him into her mouth and straddled his face, implicitly ordering him to lick into her. He did so, holding onto her thighs with a grip tight enough to leave bruises later. There was no real finesse to his tongue work, just eager need and anticipation. She swirled her tongue around the head, rubbing it along the underside of her tongue and then took him in deep, almost to the back of her throat. He groaned into her, fingers tightening a bit more, then all but stabbed his tongue deep inside of her. Natasha hummed contentedly around his cock for a while, then pulled back and let it fall out of her mouth with a wet sucking sound.

"No, please," he moaned, pulling away from her and pressing his lips to the inside of her thigh.

"Don't you want to be inside me?" she said in a sultry tone.

"Oh. Oh, yes," he groaned, pushing her onto her back. He hovered over her sprawled body, gaze intent on her naked body. Pushing her legs up, he nearly folded her in half and tilted her hips up. That made it easier for him to slide his cock into her, long and thick and hitting the sweet spot just right once she adjusted her hips. Loki's breath was ragged, and he didn't stop staring at her face as he pounded into her as hard and fast as he could go.

She came with a muffled groan and clenched down tight around his cock. He shuddered, his rhythm stuttering, and came as well.

As soon as he lost his concentration, the bed disappeared. They fell in a tangled heap onto the long grass and wildflowers near their scattered clothes. Natasha couldn't help but start laughing, and after a moment's outrage, so did Loki.

"What was the point to all of this again?" he mused when he caught his breath.

Natasha snickered and patted his arm. "Exactly that."

He huffed in a mildly irritated way, rolling his eyes. "You don't have to return to reality right away, do you?" he asked.

Pulling him close, she dropped a kiss onto his forehead. "No, not right away."

"Good," he murmured, pushing her down onto her back. "Because I don't think I remember quite how to breathe yet."

She grinned and pulled him down on top of her. "Let me show you again, then."

"Gladly."

The End


End file.
